Comments

This bothers me alot. Using a state-of-the-art Samsung phone with the newest update and still having to run an anti-virus on already taxed hardware is less than ideal. The worst of all is that I install games from Samsung App Store and my anti-virus - Trend Micro - almost gets a fit about dangerous/malicious files being installed on my device. Even Battery-Doctor had problems with a game claiming it runs in the background draining battery accessing the internet! Is this what it boils down to? Who can we trust to have 'clean' software if you cannot even trust brand-named stores?

We need to do a proper investigation on this. Personally, I'm not at all convinced that mobile AV software is necessary, so long as you stick to reputable app stores. But then, I never installed AV on Windows boxes either..

I received an answer from Samsung:" our security analysis team and it analysis as PUP, which stands for Potentially Unwanted Program refers to applications that would be considered unwanted despite having been downloaded by the user.PUP is a general term that refers to applications or files that are not directly classified as malware but can still negatively affect the performance of application and involve significant security risks.This kind of application can block antivirus setting in the application, so user can control whether approval PUP or not." and have subsequently removed said app from their store...it still bothers me that it got through to the mainstream without being detected.

The only way in this modern climate that you do not need any type of security software is if you can trust that paid-for versions are risk free. All apps I came across with the free tag has some sort of security risk. Firstly almost all of them leaks your IMEI, many your cellular number. The scary ones monitor, record and analyze your phone calls. All these are installed either from Samsung or Google play store.